Qu Qiubai: His Theories Of Literature And Cultural Hegemony

This dissertation is a research, in the light of cultural poetics, into Qu Qiubai's theories of literature and cultural hegemony. Seeing Qu Qiubai as a scholar statesman, it investigates and analyzes how his advocacy of cultural revolution was based on his belief that culture should serve the proletarian revolution and what kind of poetics he constructed in those tumultuous years of revolution. Qu Qiubai's literary theory stemmed from that special period and therefore is characterized by political and strategic contingency. In his unique poetics, Qu Qiubai provided the initial experience and model for the Chinese Communist Party in its theory and practice of cultural hegemony.The dissertation consists of an introduction and five chapters as its main body.Introduction : It sketches the process of the theoretical construction of Qu Qiubai's literary theory, and after the literature review, presents and outlines the conception of the whole research.Chapter 1 Thinking"The May Fourth Movement": the Forging and Fostering of Qu Qiubai's Consciousness of Cultural Hegemony. Based on his contemplations over problems such as the political nature of the May Fourth Movement, the relationship between the new literature and the public, the Europeanization of literature, etc., Qu Qiubai critiqued the cultural ideology of the bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie, and gradually formed his own proletarian cultural ideology with the materialist conception of history as its core. He actively advocated the proletarian, revolutionary literature and, as a logical consequence, proposed the establishment of a proletarian cultural hegemony, whereby the emphasis in thinking and decision making was consistently on the relationship between literature and politics and that between literature and the people. The budding and flowering of Qu Qiubai's consciousness of cultural hegemony covered the distance from rebelling against"the May Fourth"to opting for revolution.Chapter 2 Appropriating Realist Approaches: Ways to Ferment the Cultural Revolution. Through his introduction and research of Marx and Engels'theories of realism, Qu Qiubai developed his own realist poetics, composed mainly of his elaborations on authenticity, class character, typicality, all of which subjected to the tendentiousness of the proletarian revolution; hence the so-called"Neorealism"."Neo"means the infiltration of the revolutionary consciousness into all literary elements."Neorealism"as used by Qu Qiubai is not only a literary concept, but also a methodology, with its class attribute, for implementing the cultural revolution; It was the combination of both that brought about his option and appropriation of realism, which was to help in the proletariat's struggle for cultural hegemony.Chapter 3 Promoting the Popularized Literature: Shaping the Modes of the Cultural Revolution. Qu Qiubai was the first to advocate and promote the Chinese proletarian literature and its popularization. For Qu Qiubai, this popularization required that literature take struggle for its subject matter, that forms and styles be plain and unaffected, and that writers get close to the people. It aimed to create modes of cultural revolution that was to serve the proletarian revolution and guide the public sentiments. It constitutes an important part of Qu Qiubai's theory of cultural hegemony. After all, the efficacy of the cultural hegemony hinges upon the success of the popularization of literature.Chapter 4 Acclaiming Lu Xun: as Vanguard of the Cultural Revolution. In a sense, Qu Qiubai's approach to Lu Xun was strategic. He chose the latter's essays as the object of his criticism, and the stress of his analysis was on their ideological tendency rather than on their artistic feats. This was consistent with his intention of creating the image of a fighter engaged in the revolutionary struggle. Qu Qiubai did not want to discover an artist and to admire the fineness of his art together with the public. His evaluation of Lu Xun was featured by his class analysis, his emphasis on the role of arms in combats and his desire of establishing a model for proletarian literature. Qu Qiubai's cooption of Lu Xun aimed to get other writers actively and effectively involved in the cultural revolution.Chapter 5 Theorizing on Cultural Hemegony—from Gramsci, Qu Qiubai to Mao Zedong. Qu Qiubai's theory of cultural hegemony has close links to Qu Qiubai the person. It has various interactions with his life experience, his knowledge background, his revolutionary ideals and his personality. The rich theoretical resources for the theory of cultural hegemony include relevant elaborations by Marx, Engels, Plekhanov, Lenin, Bukharin, Lukacs, and Gramsci in particular, who represents the point where cultural hegemony as a special theory came into being. Qu Qiubai's theory of cultural hegemony stipulates that within the particular social context of a semi-colonial and semi-feudal China, the cultural revolution should cultivate its own proletarian intellectuals, guide the public sentiments, uplift a popularized literature in order to carry out a thorough proletarian cultural revolution, which would serve the proletariat in its struggle for power. However, Qu Qiubai's theory of the proletarian cultural hegemony had to wait until Mao Zedong to be finally completed.